russia had paid for his political rise and for his political party. they had worked to install him in power. they totally controlled him. he was their guy. that was how russia controlled ukraine. they controlled the ukrainian president. they installed him in power and told him what to do and he did it. and russia, of course, didn t want ukraine to have better economic ties to the west. they didn t want ukraine to have any ties to the west. they wanted ukraine to only be tied to russia. and so when ukraine had the opportunity to sign on to this pro-european trade deal, russia didn t want him to do it and russia s guy in ukraine, this very corrupt, very compromised pro-russian president said he wouldn t sign that trade deal with europe. he said instead he would sign a knew one with russia. people in ukraine did not want that. they wanted to stop looking east. they wanted to look west instead. so in response they started protesting. in november of 2013. and a few months into it,
here. it is presidents day today, february 20th. presidential historian gonna be with us tonight. she s gonna be with us here live very very much looking forward to that conversation. but it was on this date, which won february 20th in 2014 when the group they call the heavenly hundred was killed. it was actually 118 people, call them the heavenly hundred. the youngest of them was just 16 years old. the oldest of them was 83 years old. it all happened as the culmination of protests that had started the previous november, people were protesting in ukraine. because the government of that country had had the chance to sign on to a big trade deal with europe. a deal that was expected to have big economic benefits for ukraine, it was definitely something that would bring ukraine closer to europe. closer to the west. people in ukraine frothy war, really looking forward to. it this is a popular thing they very much wanted it. but the president of ukraine at the time decided he was
apparently he went on the fox news channel this morning and said president biden was wrong to go and we shouldn t be supporting ukraine in this war. whatever russia is doing, it is nothing to worry about. again, it is not clear in political terms what the big constituency is for this stuff. but that is where at least the trump and trump-ish wing of the republican party says they are on this issue. and good luck to them with it. with republicans in control of congress now, and with the trumpy part of the republican party being a little at least a little unpredictable on this issue, it s not clear yet whether in our domestic that the there might be complications ahead and how much and how well we will continue to support ukraine as this war starts its second year this week. for his part in ukraine today, while he was meeting with president biden, president
look, we got almost everything about this war wrong. a year ago today, most people expected the capital of kyiv to fall within a few days. they thought zelenskyy would flee the country. the president of ukraine. if he wasn t going to flee the country, they thought he would be almost certainly assassinated or very quickly arrested or eliminated. there were lists circulating of ukrainians to be arrested. that didn t happen. we were wrong about the russian military and the ukrainians. we didn t factor in the corruption of russia. when we heard how much money had been spent on the russian military, we thought it went to buying weapons. it turns out quit a lot went to buy villas in the south of france or london. and i think we missed the story of ukraine. we missed the reconstruction of ukraine that took place after 2014. we missed the resurgence of ukraine in civil society. it is built from the ground up
it doesn t seem coherent. and there are plenty who support president biden and the democrats in terms of standing by ukraine on this. i wonder if what you described as the sort of churchill and fdr dynamic affords any lessons for president biden in terms of escalating at home and scoring points at home by having bisupport for ukraine. i think the important thing to realize is that roosevelt did have to face isolationism when he took those steps before 1941 and pearl harbor. he gradually educated the american public as to why the fight in britain was important for us. first, it could keep us from getting in the war. but more importantly, it would prepare us if we had to get into the war. so i think the challenge for president biden, he ll have to